West Covina used high revenue cities in survey to determine city manager’s pay

WEST COVINA >> A salary survey conducted in October used salaries from high-revenue cities such as Burbank, Pasadena and Santa Ana when determining the average wage of city managers in cities similar in size to West Covina.

West Covina’s City Council used that salary average to determine that city manager Christopher Chung is paid “within the lower threshold of salary ranges,” according to a staff report that suggested bumping Chung’s salary of $195,000 by 2 percent.

Chung declined the pay raise and a one-year extension on his contract, but drew criticism because of city council-backed clarifications that would make a non-extension of his three-year contract equal to termination and that would increase his severance from 12 months to 18 months. West Covina’s outgoing city council ultimately elected not to make any changes to Chung’s contract after dozens of residents spoke against it before it came to vote. Many of the residents questioned the survey, which was not publicly released in the staff report. The survey was obtained in a public record request. City Attorney Arnold Alvarez-Glasman declined to provide the city council’s evaluations, citing a personnel exemption in California’s Public Record Act.

While the staff report states that the 18-month severance increase is “consistent with many cities and State Law,” Alvarez-Glasman indicated no research was done to back that claim.

“Please note that this statement was based upon staff’s experience and also referencing Government Code section 53260 which establishes a maximum of 18 months severance irrespective of the length of the unexpired term of an employment contract,” Alvarez-Glasman wrote in his response to the public record’s request.

Of the cities used in the salary survey, none allowed 18 months of severance. Santa Ana’s new city manager David Cavazos receives one of the highest salaries for a city manager in the state, approximately $315,000, according to his employment agreement. Cavazos, the former city manager for Phoenix, only gets 12 months upon termination, the same as Chung’s current contract. Mark Scott, Burbank’s highly paid top administrator, only gets six months.

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New Councilman Corey Warshaw, sworn in last night, conducted his own survey on the amount of severance given to Los Angeles County’s city leaders after hearing about the proposal.

“Out of 61 cities, there was only one other that had 18 months,” Warshaw saw. “It doesn’t look like they called up a lot of cities.”

While cities like Pasadena and Burbank have similar populations to West Covina, they bring in significantly more revenue. A look at the budgets of each of the survey cities used in the evaluations showed the highest salaries were in cities with triple to quadruple the revenue. The four highest salaries went to Pasadena, Burbank, Santa Ana and Ontario, all of which managed more than $150 million in general funds in 2012. Pasadena and Burbank, which both each have between 100,000 to 150,000 people, brought in more than $600 million in total revenues during fiscal year 2012-2013. By comparison, West Covina’s general fund revenue came in at about $51 million and its total revenues only reached $98 million. West Covina has a population of about 106,000 people.

The city of El Monte, which is probably the closest to West Covina in terms of population and revenue, also pays City Manager Raul Godinez II approximately $195,000, according to his employment agreement. He only gets six months of severance upon termination. The city’s survey used $204,506 as his “actual” salary.

“Cities only have so much money, so you need to look at cities that are like West Covina in revenue, not by people,” Warshaw said.

The differences in cities extended beyond just revenue.

City Manager Michael Beck in Pasadena is paid approximately $292,500, according to the Pasadena’s website, but his city employs more than 2,000 people. West Covina only has approximately 338 full-time staff members. The salary survey in West Covina used $226,668 as Beck’s salary in its comparison.

Not all of the cities had similar populations. Santa Ana, where the salary used in the survey lists as $270,450, has more than 320,000 people. Needles, where city manager Rick Daniels makes $197,000, has less than 5,000 residents.

If the four cities with more than $150 million in general fund revenues are removed from the survey, the average drops to about $202,000, $7,000 more than Chung, who only has one year of experience as a city manager, makes now.